Foreign Minister Maas called upon Moscow to their change its ways after he listed a series of events he called problematic that included the lack of progress to initiate a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Maas also criticized Moscow for the poison gas attack in Britain, supporting the Syrian government, and efforts to meddle in foreign elections recently.

"We had an attack on the Foreign Ministry where we have to assume that it stemmed from Russia, Maas said. "We can’t just wish all that away … And I think it’s not only reasonable but necessary to point out that we do not view those as constructive contributions." German government officials identified what they called an "isolated" cyber attack on the government's computer network. The attack was first discovered in December and just last week the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency said there was "a high likelihood" that Moscow was behind the attack.